


Hannibal Ficlets

by wildwestwind



Series: Ficlets [3]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bad Survivors, Canon Disabled Character, Disabled Solidarity, Food Porn, Gaslighting, M/M, Magical Realism, Mental Health Issues, Psychiatric Abuse, Valentine's Day, neurodivergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25190650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildwestwind/pseuds/wildwestwind
Summary: A collection of my NBC Hannibal ficlets.#1: Peter/Will, Peter POV; vaguely magical realism; Peter tries to save Will. ~200 words.#2: Hannibal/Will, Will tries to hold to his narrative of their relationship as therapists tell him he was abused. ~150 words.#3: Hannibal/Will, Valentine's Day. ~300 words.
Relationships: Peter Bernardone/Will Graham, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Series: Ficlets [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824811
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [75hearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/75hearts/gifts).



The thing is that you don’t want to hurt anyone. 

The thing is that when you find out your social worker is wrong, when you see the emptiness behind his smiling eyes, you sew your social worker into the horse, so that he will come back to life, and he won’t hurt anyone anymore. Because you don’t want to hurt anyone, and the system that is supposed to protect people was what made him in the first place, so you have nothing to trust but magic.

The thing is that his eyes never, ever meet yours, and he knows why that is intimate. 

The thing is that when he kisses you it is magic, and when your hands brush it is magic, and he sees the emptiness behind their eyes too. He knows why you trust animals, and why you trust magic, and why you don’t trust smiling eyes. 

The thing is that his social worker is trying to empty him out and leave nothingness behind his eyes. 

The thing is that you cannot sew him into anything, but the kisses are magic, and when you touch it is magic, and when he gasps it is magic, and you hope that your kisses and touches and gasps can cause him to be born again, whole and alive and safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone is so goddamn _sympathetic_. 

It is easy to shape them into a narrative of victim and abuser, the cannibal psychiatrist and his poor innocent patient. He acquires labels like lint on his clothes– _psychosis, complex post traumatic stress disorder, autism, encephalitis_ – but they all mean the same thing: “the poor innocent dear, he couldn’t help it.”

 _I wanted it_ , he says to doctor after doctor, _there was love_ , _I was complicit_ , and his labels are joined by _trauma bond_ and _victim blaming_ and _shame_. He feels like he’s constantly screaming. 

_I was not helpless_ , he says again and again, _I had agency, I made choices, I wanted him_ , and their pens squeak compassionately and they reassure him that it wasn’t his fault and inside him Will Graham presses his hands against a glass cage and screams and screams.


	3. Chapter 3

In Valentine’s Day as with any other tradition, Hannibal observes the proper forms. 

A bouquet of two dozen red roses is sent to Will’s place of work, with a tasteful card in Hannibal’s most careful calligraphy. On the back, he copies out a favorite love poem from a minor fourteenth century Italian poet best known for his gastronomical observations. 

Grocery store chocolate will, of course, not do. With a frustration that has over the years grown familiar, Hannibal observes that he cannot prepare the chocolate according to his usual culinary standards without altering the flavor in a way no gourmet would permit. Instead, using his surgical knowledge, he pours homemade dark chocolate into the shape of an anatomically correct heart and, as an afterthought, adds a single white-chocolate rose. 

The dinner itself is, as always, flawless. As an apertif, he serves a buckwheat blini with caviar. For the salad course, a scallop and crab salad with black pepper and Champagne gelée. (The crab had been quite disagreeable at a rather excellent play.) For the main course, duck breast with blood orange sauce, spinach, and fried artichoke hearts, accompanied by black truffle and celery root ravioli. (Hannibal reflected to himself on what an odd duck it had been indeed.) For dessert, a lovely bittersweet chocolate soufflé with crème anglaise. And– it was a special occasion– he paired the meal with a 1787 Châteaux Margaux from the wine cellar. 

Will Graham, of course, appears in mud-covered boots and a flannel shirt that he had very clearly not changed since yesterday. But– Hannibal reflects after the conclusion of the meal, a rather different consumption of a man than his usual– these are the indignities a man must endure for love. 


End file.
